Consumer preferences and purchasing behaviors are constantly evolving. But how exactly are they changing? What Matters to Today’s Consumer?, a new report from the Capgemini Research Institute, sheds light on key trends shaping the consumer landscape. The report is based on a comprehensive global survey of 12,000 consumers aged 18 and over across 12 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US.

The Personalization Playbook is your go-to guide for proven, high-impact omnichannel marketing tactics that drive engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty. Packed with challenge-led use cases and detailed automation workflows, this Playbook helps you take the guesswork out of execution and build high-performing campaigns. 

What’s Inside

Whether you’re looking to re-engage inactive customers, drive more conversions, or optimize your omnichannel approach, this Playbook gives you the strategies and step-by-step guidance to make it happen. Inside, you’ll find real-world use cases to help you: 

Accenture’s latest research highlights a major change in luxury retail. Heritage and craftsmanship alone no longer secure success. Consumers now demand sustainability, personalization and seamless shopping across digital and physical stores — what Accenture calls “social rewilding.”

What makes a brand desirable today? Accenture identifies seven key factors: exclusivity, craftsmanship, heritage, social value, customer experience, innovation and iconic status. But success doesn’t come from checking every box. The strongest brands prioritize a few, with social value, customer experience and exclusivity standing out.

What do marketers need to know to map a seamless full-funnel journey, from online discovery to in-store purchase? Today’s consumers seamlessly merge e-commerce and in-store experiences, creating personalized journeys that demand a full-funnel marketing approach. 71% of consumers still shop at brick-and-mortar stores.

Yet only 33% shop without digital assistance, relying on online research, mobile apps, or social media to guide them.

As consumer attention continues to fragment across devices and channels, advertisers are broadening their media mix to cut through the noise and stay relevant. While a multichannel strategy is now the norm, true success requires an omnichannel approach — one that unifies audience, creative and media throughout the campaign lifecycle.

The biggest difference between an omnichannel strategy and a multichannel one lies in its unified approach to audience management across campaigns spanning three or more channels. Crucially, this unification goes beyond aggregation. It’s about creating a seamless experience across those channels.

Immediacy and convenience are everything to the modern consumer. With 70% of customers believing that speedy and convenient deliveries matter most and 23% stating they won’t shop from the same store again after a delivery delay, customer retention and loyalty aren’t based on products and prices anymore. Delivery and logistics are the new battlefield where customer satisfaction is won or lost.

Delivery and logistics are the backbone of eCommerce, serving as the essential link between suppliers and customers. From small parcels to massive freight shipments, this industry oversees over 350 billion packages crisscrossing the globe annually while juggling the delicate balance of precision, speed, and customer expectations. 

Unified commerce is the next stage of omnichannel. Retailers have long understood the importance of an omnichannel strategy, with the focus on offering a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints including stores, websites, apps, and social media. But the tech stacks supporting these experiences were often siloed, and the lack of integration on the back end has created significant hurdles that cause friction for both retailers and their customers.

Retaining customers can be challenging, but it’s far more lucrative than finding new ones. According to SimplicityDX, the average business spends $29 acquiring a new customer while a repeat customer generates $39, so customer loyalty is a massive moneymaker. With rising customer expectations and increased competition, retaining loyal customers matters. Loyal customers spend more, refer others, and contribute to brand stability, making customer retention strategies vital for any organization.